The present invention generally relates to mobile communications. More particularly, the present invention relates to a satellite mobile communications method and system in which a mobile unit can selectively exchange signals with multiple satellites.
Referring to FIG. 1, a typical cellular mobile radiocommunication system is shown. The typical system includes a number of base stations similar to base station 110 and a number of mobile units or stations similar to mobile 120. Voice and/or data communication can be performed using these devices or their equivalents. The base station includes a control and processing unit 130 which is connected to the MSC (mobile switching center) 140 which in turn is connected to the public switched telephone network (not shown).
The base station 110 serves a cell and includes a plurality of voice channels handled by voice channel transceiver 150 which is controlled by the control and processing unit 130. Also, each base station includes a control channel transceiver 160 which is typically capable of exchanging control signals on more than one control channel. The control channel transceiver 160 is controlled by the control and processing unit 130. The control channel transceiver 160 broadcasts control information over the control channel of the base station or cell to mobiles locked to that control channel. The voice channel transceiver broadcasts the traffic or voice channels which can include digital control channel location information.
When the mobile 120 first enters an idle mode, it periodically scans the control channels of base stations like base station 110 for the presence of a paging burst addressed to the mobile 120. The paging burst informs mobile 120 which cell to lock on or camp to. The mobile 120 receives the absolute and relative information broadcast on a control channel at its voice and control channel transceiver 170. Then, the processing unit 180 evaluates the received control channel information which includes the characteristics of the candidate cells and determines which cell the mobile should lock to. The received control channel information not only includes absolute information concerning the cell with which it is associated, but also contains relative information concerning other cells proximate to the cell with which the control channel is associated. These adjacent cells are periodically scanned while monitoring the primary control channel to determine if there is a more suitable candidate. Additional information relating to specifics of mobile and base station implementations can be found in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/967,027, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,745,523 entitled xe2x80x9cMulti-Mode Signal Processingxe2x80x9d filed on Oct. 27, 1992 to P. Dent and B. Ekelund, the entirety of which is incorporated herein by reference. It will be appreciated that the base station may be replaced by one or more satellites in a satellite-based mobile radiocommunication system.
To increase radiocommunication system capacity, digital communication and multiple access techniques such as Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) may be used. The objective of each of these multiple access techniques is to combine signals from different sources onto a common transmission medium in such a way that, at their destinations, the different channels can be separated without mutual interference. In a FDMA system, users share the radio spectrum in the frequency domain. Each user is allocated a part of the frequency band which is used throughout a conversation. In a TDMA system, users share the radio spectrum in the time domain. Each radio channel or carrier frequency is divided into a series of time slots, and individual users are allocated a time slot during which the user has access to the entire frequency band allocated for the system (wideband TDMA) or only a part of the band (narrowband TDMA). Each time slot contains a xe2x80x9cburstxe2x80x9d of information from a data source, e.g., a digitally encoded portion of a voice conversation. The time slots are grouped into successive TDMA frames having a predetermined duration. The number of time slots in each TDMA frame is related to the number of different users that can simultaneously share the radio channel. If each slot in a TDMA frame is assigned to a different user, the duration of a TDMA frame is the minimum amount of time between successive time slots assigned to the same user. CDMA combines FDMA and TDMA. In a CDMA system, each user is assigned a unique pseudorandom user code to uniquely access the frequency time domain. Examples of CDMA techniques include spread spectrum and frequency hopping.
In a TDMA system, the successive time slots assigned to the same user, which are usually not consecutive time slots on the radio carrier, constitute the user""s digital traffic channel, which is considered to be a logical channel assigned to the user. The organization of TDMA channels, using the GSM standard as an example, is shown in FIG. 2. The TDMA channels include traffic channels TCH and signalling channels SC. The TCH channels include full-rate and half-rate channels for transmitting voice and/or data signals. The signalling channels SC transfer signalling information between the mobile unit and the satellite (or base station). The signalling channels SC include three types of control channels: broadcast control channels (BCCHs), common control channels (CCCHs) shared between multiple subscribers, and dedicated control channels (DCCHs) assigned to a single subscriber. A BCCH typically includes a frequency correction channel (FCH) and a synchronization channel (SCH), both of which are downlink channels. The common control channels (CCCHs) include downlink paging (PCH) and access grant (AGCH) channels, as well as the uplink random access channel (RACH). The dedicated control channels DCCH include a fast associated control channel (FACCH), a slow associated control channel (SACCH), and a standalone dedicated control channel (SDCCH). The slow associated control channel is assigned to a traffic (voice or data) channel or to a standalone dedicated control channel (SDCCH). The SACCH channel provides power and frame adjustment and control information to the mobile unit.
The frequency correction channel FCH of the broadcast control channel carries information which allows the mobile unit to accurately tune to the base station. The synchronization channel SCH of the broadcast control channel provides frame synchronization data to the mobile unit.
The random access channel RACH is used by the mobiles to request access to the system. The RACH logical channel is a unidirectional uplink channel (from the mobile to the base station or satellite), and is shared by separate mobile units (one RACH per cell is sufficient in typical systems, even during periods of heavy use). Mobile units continuously monitor the status of the RACH channel to determine if the channel is busy or idle. If the RACH channel is idle, a mobile unit desiring access sends its mobile identification number, along with the desired telephone number, on the RACH to the base station or satellite. The MSC receives this information from the base station or satellite and assigns an idle voice channel to the mobile station, and transmits the channel identification to the mobile through the base station or satellite so that the mobile station can tune itself to the new channel. All time slots on the RACH uplink channel are used for mobile access requests, either on a contention basis or on a reserved basis. Reserved-basis access is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/140,467, now, U.S. Pat. No. 5,420,864 entitled xe2x80x9cMethod of Effecting Random Access in a Mobile Radio Systemxe2x80x9d, which was filed on Oct. 25, 1993, and which is incorporated in this application by reference. One important feature of RACH operation is that reception of some downlink information is required, whereby mobile stations receive real-time feedback for every burst they send on the uplink. This is known as Layer 2 ARQ, or automatic repeat request, on the RACH. The downlink information preferably comprises twenty-two bits that may be thought of as another downlink sub-channel dedicated to carrying, in the downlink, Layer 2 information specific to the uplink. This flow of information, which can be called shared channel feedback, enhances the throughput capacity of the RACH so that a mobile station can quickly determine whether any burst of any access attempt has been successfully received. As shown in FIG. 2, this downlink information is transmitted on channel AGCH.
Transmission of signals in a TDMA system occurs in a buffer-and-burst, or discontinuous-transmission, mode: each mobile unit transmits or receives only during its assigned time slots in the TDMA frames on the mobile unit""s assigned frequency. At full rate, for example, a mobile station might transmit during slot 1, receive during slot 2, idle during slot 3, transmit during slot 4, receive during slot 5, and idle during slot 6, and then repeat the cycle during succeeding TDMA frames. The mobile unit, which may be batterypowered, can be switched off (or xe2x80x9csleepxe2x80x9d) to save power during the time slots when it is neither transmitting nor receiving.
To increase mobility and portability, radiocommunication subscribers tend to prefer mobile units having a relatively small, omnidirectional (and accordingly, less powerful) antenna over mobile units having a large or directional antenna. Because of this preference, it is sometimes difficult to provide sufficient signal strength for the exchange of communication signals between typical mobile units having a small, omnidirectional antenna and a mobile switching center (MSC) or satellite. This problem is particularly serious in satellite-based mobile radiocommunications.
A satellite-based mobile radiocommunication system provides radiocommunication services to particular geographical areas of the earth using one or more partially overlapping satellite beams. Each satellite beam has a radius of up to about 1000 KM. Due to the power limitations of a satellite, it is not practical to provide a high link margin in every beam simultaneously.
Because mobile satellite links are severely power limited, communication is typically limited to line-of-sight channels with Ricean fading. Ricean fading occurs from a combination of a strong line-of-sight path and a ground-reflected wave, along with weak building-reflected waves. These channels require a communications link margin of approximately 8 dB or less to achieve voice communication in ideal or near-ideal conditions, such as when the mobile radiotelephone unit antenna is properly deployed and the unit is in an unobstructed location. In these near-ideal channels, the mobile unit can successfully monitor the paging channel to detect incoming calls. In non-ideal conditions, such as when the mobile unit antenna is not deployed or the mobile unit is xe2x80x9cshadowedxe2x80x9d due to obstructions (e.g., buildings, trees, etc.) reflected waves, including ground-reflected and building-reflected waves, become significant. The channels in these non-ideal conditions are characterized by flat Rayleigh fading (the most severe type of fading) with severe attenuation. In such channels, a link margin of as much as 30 dB or more is required to achieve voice communication, and the mobile unit may have difficulty monitoring the paging channel to detect incoming calls. The term xe2x80x9clink marginxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9csignal marginxe2x80x9d refers to the additional power required to offer adequate service over and above the power required under ideal conditionsxe2x80x94that is, a channel having no impairments other than additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). xe2x80x9cImpairmentsxe2x80x9d include fading of signal amplitude, doppler shifts, phase variations, signal shadowing or blockage, implementation losses, and anomalies in the antenna radiation pattern.
It would be desirable to allow a mobile unit to exchange communication signals with more than one satellite to avoid the adverse effects of shadowing. However, in such a satellite diversity scheme, an accurate compensation is difficult to achieve for different satellites having different positions or relative velocities. If a satellite has a nongeostationary orbit, the signal frequency of the communication link between the satellite and a mobile unit suffers from the Doppler effect, which causes the signal frequency to change as the satellite moves. The change in signal frequency can cause signals on one channel to stray into another channel. In addition, the distance between each mobile unit and the satellite, and therefore the propagation delay, varies considerably. This propagation delay can cause signals to arrive at the satellite in incorrect time slots. To counteract the Doppler effect and propagation delay, the expected Doppler shift must be determined based on the satellite position and the relative velocity between a mobile unit and the satellite. The expected Doppler shift and propagation delay are used to compensate the transmitted signal to ensure that the signals transmitted to the satellite arrive in the appropriate TDMA timeslots and at the correct frequency.
One solution is to restrict the satellite diversity scheme to mobile units located relatively close together. In this case, each satellite will experience the same Doppler effect and the same propagation delay from each mobile unit, so that the signals from each mobile unit will arrive at an appropriate signal frequency and in an appropriate time slot.
A system has been proposed in which mobile units assigned adjacent frequencies in a FDMA system, or alternatively mobile units assigned adjacent time slots on a TDMA carrier, are physically adjacent. The proposed system may be implemented by mapping the one dimensional time or frequency axis to the two dimensional surface of the earth served by the satellites. Alternatively, the two dimensional time-frequency plane is mapped to the two-dimensional traffic service area.
It would be desirable for a mobile communication system to allow a transmitter/receiver, such as a mobile unit, to exchange communication signals with multiple control station, such as satellites, to avoid the effects of shadowing, which does not limit the location of the transmitter/receivers and which does not require a complicated mapping procedure.
The above-noted and other limitations of conventional communication systems and methods are overcome by the present invention, which provides for a diversity scheme in which, for example, a mobile unit in a satellite-based communications system selectively communicates with multiple satellites. Specifically, the mobile unit communicates with a first satellite using active time slots of a TDMA communications link, while scanning for a control channel of a second satellite during the idle time slots of the TDMA link. If a control channel of a second satellite is detected, the mobile unit stores the synchronization information from the control channel, and continues to monitor the control channel during the idle time slots while communicating with the first satellite during the active time slots. If the signal quality of the communication link with the first satellite falls below a first threshold level, as a result of shadowing or other interference, and the signal quality of a communication link with the second satellite would be above a second threshold level, the mobile unit establishes a communication link with the second satellite and stores the synchronization information from the first satellite. The mobile unit can monitor the control channel from the first satellite, or can scan for the presence of control channels from other satellites.
If the signal quality of the communication links between the mobile unit and each of the satellites is sufficient, or while the mobile unit is making the transition between satellites, the mobile unit can simultaneously communicate with each satellite, using active time slots in alternate TDMA frames.